Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 4:00 PM
(Cross-posted on the Google Korea Blog)Webmaster Level: All
Legitimate websites may require that their visitors install software. These sites often do so to provide their users with additional functionality beyond what's available in standard web browsers, like viewing a special type of document. Please note, however, that if your site requires specific software for your visitors, the implementation of this software installation process is very important. Incorrect implementation can appear as though you're installing malware, triggering our malware detection filters, and resulting in your site being labeled with a 'This site may harm your computer' malware warning in our search results.
If using your site requires a special software install, you need to first inform visitors why they need to install additional software. Here are two bad examples and one good example of how to handle the situation of a new visitor to such a site:
Bad: Install the required software without giving the visitor a chance to choose whether or not they want to install the software.
Bad: Pop up a confirmation dialog box that prompts the visitor to agree to install the software, without providing enough detail for the visitor to make an informed choice. (This includes the standard ActiveX control installation dialog box, since it doesn't contain enough meaningful information for a visitor to make an informed decision about that particular piece of software.)
Good: Redirect the new visitor to an information page which provides thorough details on why a special software installation is required to use the site. From this page the visitor can initiate the installation of the required software if they decide to proceed with installation.
Has your site been labeled with a malware warning in our search results due to a poorly implemented software installation requirement? Updating the installation process to ensure that visitors are fully informed on why the installation is necessary, and giving them a chance to opt out, should resolve this issue. Once you've got this in place, you can go to Webmaster Tools and request a malware review to expedite the process of removing any malware warnings associated with your site in Google's search results.
15 comments:
Is Flash exempted from this policy? Google runs a lot of Flash ads, so I figured I'd ask.
bad thing is Google does not and can not catch all sites, I really wonder why more empasis on content of sites is given and compared against existing databases and even given high rankings on search results infecting more visitors.
As a cricket lover I came across crictime.com few times and believed it must be legit since google thinks so highly of it.
Turns out after little testing 4 out of 6 times it tries to install adaware - ativurus2009 etc , site itself has less than 25% actual content, all the rest is ads, and bad ones too from globe7 etc
That leaves me wonder about credibility and responsibility of Google itself in regards to pushing harmful sites to the top thus infecting more people.
This is very good information.
Hi. I have pages that require Acrobat Reader. I have an icon on this page that points to Adobe's site. The icon is visible whether or not the viewer of the page has Acrobat Reader installed or not. Is this considered "bad"?
Here's an example, http://www.jobisez.com/edi-tp-documents.aspx?edi-doc=/edi-igs/3m/Wins-940-3060.pdf
@EDI-L & @Christopher:
It seems like Flash and Acrobat would both be OK as long as users are directed to Adobe for software downloads....
I agree with this post 100%. Nothing worse than a site or advertisement trying to install garbage on your computer without your consent or knowing.
this is good tips
my pagerank please do not ride up so fast it rises pagerank
1-30-2010
Is text on a website that can't be seen by the visitor considered a no-no by Google?
M.
Thanks Google, Blogger Add Pages beautiful...
I don't agree with such proposals going from Google.
Well it's obvious that you should inform your user about installing anything on his computer.
But Google as an objective search engine shouldn't punish sites just because you do not inform user.
Every anti-virus can figure out what is malware, what virus and what is just normal program, so why Google can't do this too?
i think blogspot users never use this kind of softwares.
its sad that the google bot don't separate the good sites from the bad; sometimes you find somesites in the top 10 while this site has no relation with the keyword. and your site which contain what the user is looking for is ranked in the lasts
Could Google stop installing TSRs with their products? and installing things in Startup without the users consent? This includes Google Updater, I hate software added to the startup which I have NOT given permission for.
Thanks for sharing nice information
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